South Coast of New South Wales, Australia Travel Information

The South Coast of NSW is one of the reasons that Australia still deserves the title “the lucky country” says Mike Gebicki

Rustic hillsides dotted with cows, sleepy towns where the paint peels from weatherboard facades, some of the finest golf courses on the planet and golden beaches where the breakers boom and hiss across the sand, this is a treasury of natural and man-made astrictions – with some great places to spend the night.

Link to accommodation, cottages & bed and breakfasts on the South Coast of New South Wales

Exactly where the South Coast begins is anyone's guess, but beyond a doubt, the town of Berry, 130 kilometres south of Sydney at the northern gateway of the Shoalhaven region, marks a change of pace. Berry, "The Town of Trees", is a delightful village crammed with antique shops and cafes and surrounded by rich dairy country at the foot of the coastal escarpment. On the first Sunday of each month except February, Berry hosts a country market – complete with farm animals, toe-tapping music, homemade preserves and lots of iron and timber furniture to add the proper rustic touch to the suburban patio.

Just south of Berry, Jervis Bay is enclosed by the broad-axe blade of Booderee National Park. This is one of the wonders of New South Wales, a pristine coastal wilderness that has survived despite plans to use the site to build a refinery, a major naval base and a nuclear reactor. Cupped within the inside curve of the bay, the national park is strung with beaches – Green Patch, Hole in the Wall, Bristol Point – all the way to Murrays Beach in the shelter of Bowen Island, which guards the bay's southern headland. From Wreck Bay village on Summercloud Bay in the park’s south, a walking trail circles the peninsula to St Georges Head, passing a succession of secret beaches, cliffs and forests of blackbutt, ti-tree and mahogany. Better still, take a walking tour with Barry Moore. Barry is a member of the local Wadi Wadi people and his perspective is unique. To Barry, this landscape is an open book. Its minutiae – ant tracks, the yabbies in the creek, the tenor of the wind – are signposts that he reads as fluently as the words on a page.

Another formidable interpreter of this landscape, Arthur Boyd lived nearby for many years on the Shoalhaven River, just inland from Nowra. In December 1971, on a day when his life would change, Boyd set up his canvas on the banks of the Shoalhaven for the first time. It was scorching – so hot that the paint dripped off his canvas and into the sand – but to Boyd, coming to the end of his years in London, the broken sandstone ridges, the river flats and the harsh summer light were a revelation. He later bought the two-storey sandstone farmhouse, Bundanon, and subsequently bequeathed it to the National Estate. It was here that he painted some of his most provocative landscapes. One day a month, the house and grounds are open to a reverent public, who must remember to book well in advance.

To the south, strung out along a ridge above the green valleys that lie between the sea and the blue peaks of the dividing range, the town of Milton is a pocket-sized delight, a town that blends sophistication with its agrarian roots. The Milton Timber Gallery has a small but outstanding collection of furniture made from rich, lustrous native timbers that bear witness to the talents of the local artisans.

It would be easy to zip through Batemans Bay without seeing much more than a broad river and a flash of rooftops, but stop a while and you'll discover one of the most enjoyable towns south of Sydney, a working town that luxuriates in the splendid surroundings of its river, the forests and national parks of its hinterland and – don’t tell anyone – some of the best fishing on the South Coast.

Fed by waters that rise almost exclusively in national parks and state forests to the north, the Clyde is the cleanest of all the major rivers on Australia’s east coast. In its upper reaches, the river flows through the incredibly wild and rugged landscape of Monolith Valley in Morton National Park, one of the rugged glories of New South Wales. For the final 30 kilometres of its journey to the sea, the 125 kilometre river is a broad estuary, navigable by larger craft. There are two vessels that operate lunchtime river cruises out of Batemans Bay, the Clyde Princess and the Merinda. Both offer a similar three-hour excursion as far as Nelligen, 11 kilometres upriver. Alternatively, you can sign on for a do-it-yourself river cruise by hiring a boat from one of several operators around the marina.

10 kilometres south of Batemans Bay, the village of Mogo is a relic from the past – a tumble-down gold-mining village that has been given the kiss of life by the really superb collection of galleries, craft shops and cafes that have taken root there. In 1857, the discovery of a single nugget sparked a gold rush in the area that saw the town grow from nothing to a population of 10,000 virtually overnight. Old Mogo Town is a re-creation of the nineteenth-century goldrush village that existed here, complete with mining equipment, historic shops and houses and a walk-through mine.

For an inspiring drive, head south from Batemans Bay along Beach Road, which winds past a string of gorgeous coves and beaches – Sunshine Cove, Lilli Pilli, Malua Bay and Guerilla Bay, each a tiny sweep of sand cradled by headlands where the waves lay a white icing across splintered fingers of shale.

South of Moruya the highway weaves through a rich, rusticated tapestry of lyrical delights. Set in a cleft, in the steep green hills at the foot of Mt Dromedary, Central Tilba is a gorgeous town of weatherboard buildings that has been classified lock, stock and barrel by the National Trust. Nearby is Mimosa Rocks National Park, where crashing waves have eaten a honeycomb of sea caves from the cliffs and left towering rock stacks from an ancient lava flow stranded out in the sea.

Nearby Bega is the centre of a prosperous dairy country, famed for its cheeses, yet it also has glorious coastal scenery, oyster farming, fruits and berries and holiday tourism. The Bega Heritage Centre is a faithful reproduction of one of the first buildings to be constructed on the Bega Cheese site in 1899.

Finally, Merimbula, the holiday resort of the Sapphire Coast. Situated between Tathra and Pambula, Merimbula offers easy access to the beautiful coastal waterways of Top and Back Lakes, a glorious setting for a holiday town and a fitting grande finale to a journey along one of Australia’s loveliest coastlines.